Category Archives: Unfortunate

Here is some evidence from a reputable website that, as suggested in Brian Aldiss’ An Age (published as Cryptozoic! in the US), and much later (or earlier), Martin Amis’ Time’s Arrow, time does flow backwards and we are perceiving the wrong way around. Either that or every piece of writing, from book to webpage, needs an editorial once-over.

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This blog isn’t a place where I want to comment on politics. I only bring this up as an example of how easy it is for a writer, facilitated by the internet, to quite possibly say too much for their own good. Frank Miller, graphic novelist and screenwriter – The Dark Knight Returns, 300 – recently posted a vitriolic piece about the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Here is a flavour of Miller’s post:

The “Occupy” movement, whether displaying itself on Wall Street or in the streets of Oakland (which has, with unspeakable cowardice, embraced it) is anything but an exercise of our blessed First Amendment. “Occupy” is nothing but a pack of louts, thieves, and rapists, an unruly mob, fed by Woodstock-era nostalgia and putrid false righteousness. These clowns can do nothing but harm America.

This has led to some interesting reactions, not least almost 10,000 comments on Miller’s own blog. So one might argue no publicity is bad publicity. Unless it turns your readers against you, destroying your reputation and future book and movie ticket sales in the process.

Which raises the question, what is the moral responsibility of the writer? Is Miller’s work really akin to ‘the propaganda machine of 1930s Germany’, or is the argument all over the moment someone evokes the Nazis?

Like this:

Gary Dalkin is an editor and independent writing consultant with three decades experience in print and online publishing. He contributes every month to Writing Magazine and has been published by Amazon, BBC Publications, Gramophone, HMV, Interzone, the London Symphony Orchestra, SFX and many more.